Walney Wind Farm: Brand New 367 Mega Watt Offshore Wind Farm

According to recent a reports, a new wind farm has opened just off the coast of Cumbria in the United Kingdom. Experts in the field state that this wind farm alone can power over 300 000 homes.

The wind farm is estimated to be worth more the £1 billion. This wind farm was joint venture between 3 corporations, namely SSE, OPW and DONG Energy. This is said to be the “biggest offshore wind farm”. There is over 100 active turbines and each of these have the ability to produce at least 3.6 Mega-watts of electrical power.

The Director of OPW, Mr. Dennis van Alphen said that this investment in renewable energy is part of the investment policy for their new clients. He feels that a good investment in renewable energy is just what the United Kingdom needs right now.

It’s quite noteworthy that this is the very first offshore wind farm that has received its investments from an equity fund and pension fund service providers before it was even built.

Its success may open doors for similar projects to receive the same kind of funding.

Quite a few experts in the energy field feel that offshore wind farms are essential to the energy problems which are plaguing Britain. On the other hand, some feel that this solution may be too expensive to be viable. They feel that there are other ways that the same amount of energy could be produced for a fraction of what is spent on offshore wind farms.

The government is trying reducing the cost of using offshore wind farms to generate energy. At the moment it is costing roughly £150 per mega-watt that is produced. The government proposes to reduce the cost to about £120 per mega-watt by the year 2020.

The CEO of DONG, Anders Eldrup, says that they plan to industrialize the way in which offshore wind farms are produced. They feel that doing this “project by project” is an ineffective way of going about producing wind farms as it’s something that needs to be continuous.

It is quite clear that the government in the UK is doing its best to increase the amount of energy that is being produced. Although it doesn’t seem certain that they will be meeting their required targets.